Saturday, August 23, 2008

I'm finally furnishing the new place with what I like to call "craigslist decor". I got a kitchen table and a dresser last week, this week it's end tables, next week, love seat. My place still has no soul, but maybe in a month or so, it won't feel that I am in someone else's crib.

My expedition with Comcast cable is really starting to piss me off. First, they didn't tell me that I needed a different HD box to get the HD channels, so I go exchange it at the office and have to wait 15 minutes. I come home after work and dial the number to activate it and was immediately put on hold for 37 (!!) minutes. Even after talking to the tech, she says that she has sent signal after signal, but it doesn't work. Great! So, I have to wait till 10am one morning for the tech to get there, but in his big truck of tech, he has NO HD box on the truck!! What? "Well, they didn't tell us the problem, just that there was a problem". So, for the second time, I have to take the box back to the store. I decide on Friday to take my lunch hour at go to the cable place. The line stretches out the door. Shit. So, now I ahve a box that doesn't work and no time to fix it. They have one strike left. If I don't get satisfaction on the next try, they are OUT! I'll get a dish or something.The new job is full of challenges and I am completely maxed for time. That's exactly what I wanted and needed. The programming and engineering guys work their asses off to make sure the stations sound great. My PDs remind me of me many years ago, full of ideas and big plans. I'd much rather reel them in than have to push them. I am training my sales staff with as much stuff as they can handle. Let's return to the things that are fundamentally sound and rudimentary solid. Yes, I am actually training my sales staff, something that is rare in our business. When I started, I was given the phone book and told to "start dialing"...thanks! In six months, I expect to have a staff of GREAT sellers, not just good ones. If doesn't happen, it won't be for lack of effort.Yesterday, for the first time in twenty years, I had a conversation with one of my favorite people from the past. "Congratulations", she said, "we made it". Wow, we did, huh? With all of the bad juju, the distractions, the drugs, the crises, the deaths of loved ones, the chaos that once marked our lives, we somehow have appeared on the other side. The roller coaster ride didn't kill me, it made me stronger. God tested me (he still does) and I didn't falter. Not when he took my parents away, my older brother (who I adored), my friends, my loves, my money, my house, my health, nothing. I didn't waiver in my faith and I feel I have been rewarded with health, wealth, happy, healthy kids and relationships that get better every day. Yeah, I made it. We made it. We waded into the swamp until we started to wade OUT. I am still walking, still wading.

I saw Eagles tickets for sale and their face value was $187.50. That's without the service charges and other fees. I couldn't be more unimpressed. I hope Don Henley and Glenn Frey choke on their own money. It's hard for me to believe that these are the same guys that I used to adore. Lately, if the Eagles were playing for free in my neighbor's back yard, I'd go next door and tell them to turn it down because I'm watching reruns of "Happy Days". Kinda sums up my feelings, huh?

In the words of Oat Willie(the most thoughtful guy in the world)....onward through the fog....

I know my daughter loves this guy but I'm not sure about this. This smacks of everything that Obama is against...the Washington insider...the plagarist...the guy who said the Obama was "not ready to lead." Man, I hope he hasn't shot himself in the foot here. I think I would've liked Chuck Hagel, Kathleen Siberius or even "gasp" Hillary, but maybe he knows more than I (you think?).It didn't give me a kick in the pants like I would hoped it would. Smart guy for sure and probably will chew up Mitt in the debate, but me thinks that it wasn't the 'Knockout punch" I was looking for. We will see.

I bought this last year, along with the new John Fogerty release "Revival". At the time, I gave Bruce barely a passing grade while praising the new Fogerty. Not to take anything away from the Fogerty release, but I got this out last weekend and stuck in the car for the drive just so I could familiarize myself with the new record. Jeez, what a record. I'll put it right up there with anything he's done in the last 20 years. The old dynamic key changes and hooks are all in place. The lyrics once again make me sad, happy and angry all at the same time. "Livin In The Future", "Gypsy Biker", "I'll Work For Your Love","Magic" and the anti war "Last to Die" kick my ass but the show stopper, the one that really stands out for me is "Girls In Their Summer Clothes". It immediately and repeatedly sends me back to being 19 again.

"Well the street lights shine Down on Blessing AvenueLovers they walk by Holdin' hands two by two A breeze crosses the porchBicycle spokes spin 'round Jacket's on, I'm out the doorTonight I'm gonna burn this town downAnd the girls in their summer clothes In the cool of the evening lightThe girls in their summer clothes Pass me by

Kid's rubber ball smacks Off the gutter 'neath the lamp lightBig bank clock chimes Off go the sleepy front porch lightsDowntown the store's alive As the evening's underwayThings been a little tightBut I know they're gonna turn my wayAnd the girls in their summer clothes In the cool of the evening lightThe girls in their summer clothes Pass me by

Frankie's Diner's Over on the edge of town Neon sign spinnin' roundLike a cross over the lost and found Fluorescent lights Flicker aboveBob's Grill Shaniqua brings a coffee and asks "fill?"And says "penny for your thoughts now my poor Bill"

She went away She cut me like a knife Had a beautiful thingMaybe you just saved my life In just a glance Down here on Magic StreetLove's a fool's dance I ain't got much sense but I still got my feetAnd the girls in their summer clothes In the cool of the evening lightThe girls in their summer clothes Pass me byAnd the girls in their summer clothes In the cool of the evening lightThe girls in their summer clothes Pass me byLa la la la, la la la la la la laLa la la la, la la la la la la laLa la la la, la la la la la la laLa la la la, la la la la la la la"

That guy knows MY life better than I do, he always has, I expect he always will. The best recording in the last two years and I missed it first time around. That goes to show you that music has a way of sneaking up on you when you least expect it. This one hit me over the head with a hammer, a year after it should have. Thanks Bruce...."and I'm just out here searchin for my own piece of the cross..."

Tonight's the big night, the one I have waited for months to get here..is now here. Nothing transports me away into time and space than Bruce and his band. I guess you have to "be there" to get it as many of my co-workers/friends don't understand it. Tonight in St. Louis, tomorrow in KC and then the long overnight drive back to Bloomington in the wee hours of Monday morning. Bruce is more of a concert, it's an evangelical experience. Very few people have gotten to my psyche than he has. From the first time I heard "Fourth of July/Sandy" and then heard the majestic, exuberant, muti orgasmic "Born to Run" on KSHE 33 years ago, it was over. Over, I say! Then I discovered "Thunder Road","Tenth Avenue Freeze Out","Rosalita" and the rest. He makes me cry, he makes me think, he makes me happy, he makes me sad. There is nothing like a soaring big man solo to prop up any funk, anytime. The big man can't stand throughout the whole show anymore and the sweet Hammond B3 of Danny Federici is forever silenced, but there is a certain optimism in his music even during the "The Rising". When it's all sorted out, there were be two American songwriters who have defined our generation...Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. "Take me home, take me home...Thunder Road!".